Alternate History of the Off-Topic
Off-Topic History, as of 2024 Pieced together from the memoirs of John Krey Smith: These are my writings: here, away from cyberspace, away from the debilitating effects of the net, of its communities, I am sane. A funny concept, sanity; this is not a comedy, and you must forgive me for withholding comedy relief. A man (or boy, it is hard to tell) once told me, and I paraphrase: Too much thinking can turn a man insane. In the insanity you can found the most beautifull treasure.. or disastrous horror. Even with his dyslexia, he showed great insight into the human condition; though, this was not his only nugget of pure brilliance. I will expand upon that later, however. His sanity shall not steal the spotlight of my own. The internet: a place of sharing. An environment of freedom. With this freedom of expression, there was hostility. Sometimes cold, passive; sometimes with passion. But there was always optimism there: that you could find a new life for yourself is an attractive idea in a global world where it is not possible to do. Here sprang up the concept of forums, and small communities grew to large communities, and the internet became a haven for the abused intellectuals of society. The tortured geniuses of their time. The internet was built for these people; and, if they were not intelligent, they were cunning. Cunning and clever bastards. This was their own world, and the living was comfortable. The bon mots were numerous. And then a new company creeped out of the dark, and with it brought the doom of this style of haven. Blizzard Entertainment sprung up in the American Empire, sometime before the turn of the century. Gathering a cult following early on, it soon broke into the spotlight with a series of best sellers. It grew in fame, and power, and with the release of the last of the Warcraft strategy games the stage was set for their biggest success yet. Their success, and our loss. All of us. With the release of this new World, a new haven was born; in fact, two were born: codenamed WoW (World of Warcraft) and WoW OT (World of Warcraft Off-Topic Forums). I shall elaborate on the Off-Topic further on. The World grew. And grew. And spread. With one product, Blizzard rose two companies out of the deeps of bankruptcy, dripping and smelling of brine, and gave them permission to come aboard and scrub the decks for safe passage. It had become a fearsome ship, and enormous. And those mergers were just the beginning: they entered into an agreement with another company, and soon became BAB: Blizzard-Activision-Bethesda. As my dear dyslexic friend put it: This company BAD has taken all fun of gaming for me and friend. Poor, poor sona%@#!@. He got it right, though, even where millions of babbling fools had gotten it wrong. They were bad, and they had come to change the very way we see internet life itself. Their pimply hands, covered in the finest velour, had injected a virus into their own community. 11.5 million people had been abused without their consent; yet, they enjoyed it. A virus. It has shown its symptoms in fleshspace, just as it already has for the Off-Topic. The Off-Topic was one of the occurrences of freedom that one could find in an increasingly oppressive environment. Its people were content, for the Blizzard pawns had not struck down on entertainment as of yet. They were called the WoW OT CM's by its pompous leaders, but were colloquially and derisively known as Blues. The name came from their distinctive style of posting – that is, it was blue. They traveled in packs, all wearing their plain black tees; they were menacing, but mostly harmless. Blizzard's virus had not taken a hold on its community yet, and they must keep their dogs on a tight leash. They were of course a target of easy mockery, but as the virus started to affect the forum, their derision turned to groveling. Soon its people imitated their overlords, and began to fashion black t-shirts of their own, with game-related emblems ironed on at key areas. Blizzard let loose its leashes, and the community opened their arms to a pack of snarling bulldogs. They cherished the foam and spittle. They imitated it. The internet was no haven now. Nowhere was. The virus had spread. The world turned a dark green, and at times under the right light, it would appear to be sickly. Like that one ghost from Ghostbusters. Category:TLDR History